Wheelchairs and the good 'ol USA

Alright, so the title of this post does not remotely capture all of the excitement of the week, but on Tuesday, I had the privilege of both fitting my kids in new wheelchairs and visiting the US Embassy. It was a great day!

Visiting the Embassy
The most fantastic part of my time there was when I thought about the fact that I was technically standing on ground owned my the USA... yes I teared up a little bit. I am so happy and content with what God has me doing, but I miss my home!!! It was a really great time of hearing from the consulate office about what services they offer US citizens, hearing from the head of security, and hearing from Ambassador DeLisi about how the US is partnering with Uganda. And I can tell you that unlike most of our European friends.... the US has been much smarter about how they have invested money in Uganda! We closed our time there with homemade chocolate chips cookies made by the consulate office. I have a little beef with our government though, in that embassy workers can get food and other things overnighted to them from the US with no extra cost to them (AKA the rest of us pay for it). So things like chocolate chips are not a big deal to them.. but the rest of us were Oh So HAPPY to enjoy them!

The US Embassy - Beautiful but HEAVILY guarded outside. You cannot see any of this from the road.

Ambassador DeLisi speaking to us. Cameras, Phones, Water bottles - EVERYTHING had to be left outside... this is the photo from Ambassador DeLisi's Facebook Page, and my head is on the far left!!!! In case you are confusing me with the gray haired man..  I am in the purple polka dot dress with my hair up :)

After leaving the Embassy, I went with some AIM friends out to an Ethiopian restaurant! I am here with my friend Amanda, another short termer

Praise the Lord for More Wheelchairs!!!
At the school we have 6 children that use wheelchairs. Two of them have very good wheelchairs, two have their own chairs but they do not remotely fit them correctly, and the last two have school chairs that they have outgrown. Four of the kids were on a list to get new wheelchairs from Fathers Heart Mobility (the organization I worked with last week) in August. Well, we had extra wheelchairs from last week, and Francis said that we could take four of them now! Praise the Lord!

The school truck loaded to bring the wheelchairs home

Low and behold we ended up with 5 wheelchairs. Kato had his own nice wheelchair, and over the weekend his completely fell apart. We are hoping to get it repaired, but it doesn't look good :( The school put him in a fold-able chair that they had, but poor Kato had to hold onto the back to keep himself from falling out. Kato is completely dependent on his wheelchair not only for mobility, but just to sit in class. He cannot sit by himself, so his wheelchair is essential. God's timing could not have been better for getting these new chairs!!!

Kato in his temporary chair... can you see how he is holding on?

Kato in his new wheelchair - He was SOOOO Happy!!!

Sumaya in her old chair... her feet dragged on the ground when she was pushed, so she had to be leaned back. She clearly had outgrown this chair!

Sumaya is very happy in her new chair! And her feet don't touch the ground!

Sunna had a small chair like Sumaya's but one of the front wheels fell off. Since then he was put in this one, and it is also just way to big for him and it is not very supportive.

Sunna in his new chair giving me a high five. He cannot verbally communicate, but he communicates with noises and hand gestures... he made it clear that he was VERY VERY happy!

Maria is one that is in her own chair, but it is far to big and her feet do not reach the foot plates. Nor is the chair supportive enough for her. She does not have her own wheelchair at home, so we are going to send her old wheelchair home so she at least has something when she is on holiday from school. But when she leaves the school her new wheelchair will be hers to keep

Maria in her new chair.. it fits so nice!!!

Vicky in her new chair (I forgot an old chair pictures). Her story is similar to Maria's and now she can sit properly in her chair!

 Thank you Francis and Adrienne and the people that donated the money for the chairs!!!!

A little randomness from the week!

Unfortunately I did not take this photo, it is from my friend Amanda... but I have seen this and have been wanting a picture. In case you are confused... those are all chickens!

Why is there a stick in the windshield? That is what I asked the school driver. Apparently it is for when cattle refuse to leave the road and when boda boda drivers get a little obnoxious!

Our new friend Ibram started at the school this year. Behind him on the wall are the crosses I decorated with each of my kids as we get ready to celebrate Easter!

I have not had geckos in my house for awhile, and now I have two again. I caught this one, only to take a picture and then he got away. I think he is kind of cute!!!

My 3 favorite girls: Lucky, Sumaya, and Doris wanted to have a photo shoot! This was my favorite one!

I always joke that I have the best family ever, and I stand by that being true. I have received so many cards and packages, it just shows me your support and I could not be more thankful! My Aunt Jill deserves some recognition for her creativity in what she can get in an envelope without paying any extra money. My favorite item to date... pretty Band-Aids :) The get well soon card I got this week from her also rocks... "Just in case you are sick" :)

 I think that is all for this week. We have a 4 day weekend as Uganda recognizes both Good Friday and the Monday after Easter as national holidays! (USA... you need to work on that!) As always, thank you all so much for your support and prayers! I could not do what I am doing without each one of you!

Much Love,

Wheelchairs and Power Outages

One of my favorite things I have been able to do here is help with a few wheelchair distributions. You can read about the previous ones here and here. The one this week was in Kampala for the Wakiso District. We ended up giving away around 160 wheelchairs in 2 days.

In Uganda, it is generally quite expensive to get a wheelchair. They cost around 500,000 UGX or $192.31. Most people cannot afford to pay for a wheelchair and end up just crawling to get from place to place. On top of that, there are many more illnesses here that can cause physical disabilities. The organization that I worked with is called Father's Heart Mobility and they are able to provide donated wheelchairs to these people that only cost $100 or. 260,000 UGX. If you would be interested in donating a wheelchair to someone in need click here.

Meet some of the people that I worked with the past 2 days:

Meet Kato: Kato's only problem is that he has an untreated club foot on the right. We referred him to an organization called CorSu that does orthopedic surgeries for free.

Kato

Meet Phiona: Phiona acquired Spinal Tuberculosis when she was 7 years old. It has led to paresis in her legs and a hump on her upper back by her shoulder blades (where the infection dwelled). She is now 19 years old and has only been able to crawl to get around since she was 7. She was so excited to receive a wheelchair!

Phiona

 Meet Daphine: My favorite part about Daphine's story is her step-mother. In Uganda, most people do not care for children with disabilities and most step-mother's do not care for their husband's kids. This women went against both of those cultural norms to care for this girl. Daphine was developing normally until she was 3 years old. She got really sick and went to the hospital and they sent her home saying it was just a fever. Daphine ended up losing function of both her arms and legs and now cannot talk, sit or feed herself. She is now 12 years old, and her step-mother came into her life 7 months ago. Daphine's mother basically left Daphine to do nothing. This new step-mother is now fighting for Daphine, trying to teach her to eat, sit, and trying to get her a wheelchair. I started crying talking with this women, she is so amazing.

Daphine with her step mother

Meet Sarah: Sarah is 20 years old and has cerebral palsy. I think she at one time had a wheelchair that became too small and she has had to be carried ever since. She was so incredibly happy to receive a new chair!

Sarah

 And some other people that warmed my heart in the last few days!

This wonderful women Phiona translated and was my helper for the last 2 days. I am so thankful for her!!

This sweet little boy has severe hydrocephalus, but his mom is doing everything right in trying to get him the treatment he needs. The mom was so sweet, she said my little boy is perfect, except that he has some extra fluid on his brain.

I do not remember this little guy's name, but he was just so sweet. He appeared to have spastic diplegia (cerebral palsy affecting only the legs)

How cute is he in his chair!!

This sweet little guy, has hydrocephalus and what is called plagiocephaly- or something similar, basically a flattening of the head (PT friends... have a better name for this?) He is pictured with my good friend Florence, who has a non-for-profit that helps kids with diabilities. She also is a PT!

This little girl was so sweet too!

I think most of the adults I saw, were paralyzed since childhood secondary to having polio.

One more of the sweet kids I met!

I just loved this man in the wheelchair on the left. He goes into his village and finds kids that parents are trying to hide and shows them that it is ok to have a disability. He brought 3 boys to the distribution for wheelchairs.

I cannot tell you anything about this man... BUT he is wearing a baby onesie on his head! He is talking with Francis the founder of Father's Heart Mobility

My favorite part of these distributions is just being able to show people God's love. They call it Father's Heart because they want people to learn about how much God has given them through the gift of this wheelchair. 

I felt like a real African this week!
Normally if the water goes out.. it is gone for a few hours and comes back. This week it was gone for nearly 36 hours before we had water again. That meant I had to go get water from the rain tanks outside (which all of my neighbors do daily) and then use it in my house. Well.. in the mean time we also had about 5 hours without power... No power and no water.. hence why I felt like an African - that is how so many people live in Africa outside of the cities. However, even some people in the city do not have water or power in their homes. Well the power came back... and 12 hours later the water came back... Only for when the water to come back the power went out for another 48 hours.. well I have no idea when it came back on since I left for the distribution.. but it had been 48 hours when I left. God has wonderful timing!!!

Filling my jerry can with the rain tank

I had to work out in candle light... I am pretty sure that was a first!

This week in pictures:

Some other really fun things happened this week that I wanted to share about as well!

Friday: The kids had elections (I still cannot figure out entirely what happened). The student who was running had to sit with their backs to the other students with a bucket behind them where the other students put their vote.

Saturday: My sweet friend Julie Matthews came to visit me from Jinja. It was so wonderful to catch up with her!

Sunday: My neighbor Christine made this dress for me, so I decided to show it off and wear it to church

Sunday: My friend Margret came over after church and I taught her how to make Snickerdoodles. However, her aunt's oven where we were going to bake them was out of gas... so we learned how to make the dough.. froze it... and will finish the process another day!

Sunday: Margret's son Matthew came over while we make cookie dough and colored. He use to be so afraid of me, now I think he thinks I am his best friend!! :)

Monday: It hailed for a long time... I decided this was Ugandan snow!

Tuesday: I played games with the girls. They love Memory and Connect Four!

Wednesday - Friday: I was fortunate enough to stay with this lovely couple during the wheelchair distribution! Bill and Ruth Stough are retired missionaries with AIM and they are from Wheaton, IL. They have become my grandparents here and I am so thankful for them!

Grandma Capp - This photo is specifically for you! Ruth has fully embraced that geckos live in her house. When she finds their eggs, she puts them in her bowl of potpourri so they can safely hatch! She calls them her house geckos!!

 You all deserve a gold star if you made it all the way through this post! It was such a good week, God is so Good!! Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!

Bugs, Rain & Rugby

Sooooo... this week has been quite interesting and frustrating, but at the same time very uneventful :)

Timeline of the week:

Saturday: returned from the village and discovered basket bugs and bean bugs

Sunday: Returned from church, exterminated the basket bugs and scrubbed my house, thought I had a major gecko problem from all of the poo I found

Monday: Discovered rice bugs and termites

Tuesday: Discovered that I did not have a gecko problem, but instead a MOUSE problem! And scrubbed my house again. Saw 4 children in our neighborhood to start the Community Outreach Program we will be doing over holiday breaks

Wednesday: Went to another wheelchair distribution at Mukisa Foundation

Thursday: Went to a fundraiser for Mukisa Foundation

Friday: Enjoyed the kids having rugby lessons..... and still have not figured out how to kill the termites

So all that being said... I sadly do not have a lot more to add.... it has been a very interesting week. So with that I am going to share my favorite verse with you and share some pictures from the week. I promise to step up my game with the blog updates next week! My favorite verse is Psalm 73:23-24: "Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory." There is so much more to those verses in the whole context of the Psalm, but my point is I am so thankful that God is here with me holding my hand. When the bugs seem almost more than I can handle... I know that God is here with me and the bugs... and the mouse.

Christmas Decorations! I have no Christmas tree, so the doorway works for hanging ornaments!

My star garland hanging above the door to my bathroom

Thursday morning Teddy (on the right) had hurt her knee and didn't want to do exercises because of the pain. So instead we painted finger nails! Even Ronald (next to Teddy).... I couldn't convince him that boys don't do nail polish so he got a thin coat of light pink!

With my friend Cassandra at the Mukisa Foundation fundraiser. It was a night of REALLY good music. We enjoyed it. Mukisa Foundation is a non-profit organization that helps families of children with special needs. One of the co-founders Florence is a Ugandan physiotherapist that I love dearly and am so thankful to have to ask questions of! I enjoyed spending the day before with her fitting wheelchairs for her children along with Fathers Heart Mobility who I mentioned last week.

Rugby Team Photo: 6 kids that have gone home or live in the community joined us for this special day and tomorrow we go into town to show off our new rugby skills!

Doing some warm-up stretches led by one of the older boys Kato (3rd person in)

Kato running with the ball

Teddy holding the ball..... I think she was posing for me in this picture...  and then got in trouble from the coach for not paying attention :)

The kids did many drills to work on learning to only pass the ball backwards

Taking a break on the merry-go-round

The little boy running with the ball is named Matthias. I just met him this week during our community outreach program. He is 9 years old (the boy next to him is 8 years old) and is going to be of short-stature. He unfortunately developed what I believe to be a disease called Rickets Disease in later childhood. His knees are severely deformed and bend inwards. He has visited doctors in the past year and they have said there is nothing they can do for him. This boy is VERY smart and athletic despite all of these things. Please be praying for wisdom for doctors as I refer him to one more place and be praying for his family as his older brother has severe cerebral palsy and lots of complications.

What did I do during rugby? While I was dressed to play, I ended up keeping the small children off the field and taking pictures!

I almost forgot! Funny Story of the Week!

Thursday I went to meet Casssandra for the fundraiser. No sooner did  I get on the boda boda (motorcycle) with my trusted boda driver, Solango, that is started to rain. When Solango offered to pull over I said no its ok lets make it to Lugogo shopping center since. Lugogo is about 1/4th of the way to Cassandra's house and since I had to stop at the bank there anyways I thought it was a good idea.... I should have known. So then the rain picked up and next thing I knew we were both COMPLETELY drenched and just laughing... because what else can you do! And next thing we know a large truck comes flying by and like a scene straight out of a movie just sprays mud all over us.... and again we both just laughed. Whelp... we made it to Lugogo and no sooner did I make it to the overhanging roof that another muzungo (white person) stopped to stare and churckle at me,  (everyone else just stared) and then proceeded to say "Wow you are wet". Thank you for stating the obvious! I proceeded to make a puddle on the ground in the store that I went into while I waited for the rain to clear. Life lesson learned: when you boda driver offers to pull over... LISTEN!

Thanks so much for your continued prayers. I am so encouraged every time I get a message from someone saying they are praying for me. You have no idea how much I appreciate this! I literally see prayers answered everyday and I am so thankful for all of my prayer partners!